In 1838, Emily Bronte worked as a governess at Miss Patchett’s Ladies Academy Law Hill School。 Because Law Hill School is situated in the middle of Sunderland and Shibden Hall。 Therefore, some researchers guess that High Sunderland and Shibden Hall are the creation background of Wuthering Heights。
Wuthering Heights, a great novella, is considered as “the sphinx of literature”。 At the beginning of the advent of Wuthering Heights, and then a long time, few people pay attention to it。 Even some people think that Wuthering Heights is merely a native fantasy for novice writers and condemned it as vulgar, sordid, and unnatural。 Until the 1850s, with the introduction by Emily’s sister Charlotte, Wuthering Heights received the second printing and attracted a wide readership。 From that time to today, Wuthering Heights is widely considered as one of the great novels of world literature。
The main plot of Wuthering Heights is the love tragedy between Heathcliff and Catherine。 The novel reveals the process of Heathcliff restoration of humanity。 This thesis attempts to discuss that the application of contrasts has a big effect on enriching the major characters and deepening the themes。
2。 Literature Review
Wuthering Heights as a literary masterpiece in the middle nineteenth century, has attracted many critics attention。 At all times and in all over the world, there are too many researches about Wuthering Heights’ theme, major characters, narrative features and the tragic love story between Heathcliff and Catherine。 However, few researchers from the perspective of contrast to analyze the differences between two generations in Wuthering Heights including their love。
As to its theme, love, revenge and the return of humanity, Gao Jihai, a famous English literary researcher, has ever commented on the novel in a article titled “A Study of Wuthering Heights from the Perspective of Theme and Narratology” where he hold that love was based on congruence instead of complementarity, and revenge was extremely cruel and horrible。 This novel expresses Emily Bronte unremitting pursuit of “spiritual freedom and independence” (Gao 158)。 To any extent, Emily Bronte recorded truly that involved in “paradox of their time”, public faced with various confusion (Novak 1)。
Wuthering Heights’ artistic structure also be discussed。 At that time, gothic novel brings “passion, vitality and grand spirit” to English literature(Punter 6)。 Wuthering Heights typically reflects the main characteristics of gothic novel “Time is the key to the novel”。(Dawson 293) Emily Bronte breaks the traditional narrative methods。 The main plot of Wuthering Heights was told chiefly by two main narrators, Lockwood and Nelly Dean。
The novel’s major characters are always under hot discussion especially Heathcliff。 “As an avenger in this tragedy, Heathcliff can be considered as a hero also can be considered as villain”(Wang 189)。 Thus, for Heathcliff is a sympathetic orphan or an abominable devil, academia still give us many mysteries。 In the novel, Emily Bronte focused on the shaping of Heathcliff, on whom Emily Bronte placed her all indignation and sympathy and ideal。 In fact, if we consider Heathcliff as a devil, Catherine is the maker of devil。 文献综述
In general, in the past few decades, critics have done many researches on the subject, however, there are many new fields waiting to be explored。 On the basis of the previous researches, by analyzing contrasts in Wuthering Heights we are going to have a deeper understanding of the great novel。
3。 Manifestations of Contrast in Wuthering Heights
3。1 Environment 浅析呼啸山庄中的对比(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_202850.html